1. Technical Field
This document relates to methods and materials for producing immune responses against polypeptides involved in antibiotic resistance. For example, this document provides vaccines against polypeptides involved in antibiotic resistance as well as methods for vaccinating mammals against polypeptides involved in antibiotic resistance.
2. Background Information
For many pathogens, reasonably effective antibiotics and vaccines that can temper or control infections, symptoms, and fatalities are available. However, when pathogens become resistant to effective antibiotics, these normally controlled pathogens can become lethal for the patient and can amplify into to epidemics with no effective treatment. Tuberculosis is an example of this problem. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) can be effectively treated with triple antibiotic therapies. However, use of antibiotics has selected Mtb that is either multi-drug resistant (MDR) or extensively drug resistant (XDR), both of which are substantially more difficult to treat with multi-drug therapy. MDR and XDR Mtb have acquired drug resistance by accumulating multiple gene products that can inactivate or efflux multiple antibiotics.